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As the president and democratic congressmen approval ratings continue to drop in the polls, and as they try to explain to people that the economy is improving, they no longer feel like tolerating any dissent or disagreement. They are now stalking Fox News with twitching trigger fingers, along with a number of individuals whom they also plan to try and destroy.
It seems as if they discover another target every few days. They have come up with numbers to prove to the voters that the stimulus is working just as they knew it would. The president said that the stimulus either created or saved one million jobs in the third quarter of this year. Most of these jobs were employees of states and in most cases were saved rather than created. The news sounds good, and it is, but even with that said, unemployment continues to climb steadily. September showed an increase to the highest level in 26 years to that of 9.8% and the figures for October, when available, are expected an additional increase, possibly to as high as 10%. Some are disputing the number of jobs as being because of the stimulus.
But we now have another fight with more twitching fingers. The Obama team is now ready to draw down on Edmunds.com's CEO, Jeremy Anywl who emphatically says the 690,000 car upgrades which the government says is directly credited to the "cash for clunkers" stimulus, should only be 125,000. Edmunds says the rest of that figure would have been made anyway, without the clunkers deal. The White House says Edmunds has it wrong.
The difference here is of considerable importance, since Edmunds says each of the 125,000 trades cost the American taxpayer $24,000. Compare that with perhaps $4,300 if all 690,000 were charged to it.
All car enthusiasts and even ordinary fellows who plan to trade, or have traded cars are familiar with Edmunds.com of Santa Monica, California, who publishes the "Blue Book" series of cars costs and values, plus a "True Market Tool".
Both sides of this argument are adamant that they have it right. I'm not taking sides. I don't want to get caught in the cross-fire. If you have an interest in reading both versions here are the URL's to both.
Here is Edmunds press release:
http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/159446/article.html
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